Home | About CLEAN | News & Views | Resources | Calendar | Kids CLEAN | Join CLEAN | Contact Us Controversial town
house development can proceed
Thursday, July 24, 2008
BY JOHN PETRICK STAFF WRITER Plans to construct a 104-unit townhouse development in West Milford can proceed under a state Appellate Division ruling today that affirms a lower court’s decision approving the project. Skylands Clean, a Ringwood environmental advocacy group, had challenged developer Trammel Crow Residential’s plans to develop the property off Union Valley and Dockerty Hollow roads in West Milford. The group had questioned the validity of preliminary site plan approval and the project’s grandfathered status under the Highland Act. In November 2006, state Superior Court Judge Anthony Graziano in Paterson cleared the legal path for the project, reversing the Planning Board’s denial a few months earlier of final site plan approval. The judge shot down arguments by Skylands Clean that the Planning Board’s preliminary site plan from 1996 was outdated, and said the local planning office had ample opportunity to seek updated environmental impact studies if officials felt they were needed. The Appellate Division decision affirmed that ruling. “TCR is entitled to the relief ordered by the trial court (Graziano), because its application for final site approval substantially conforms with the plan that received preliminary approval,” the decision states. “This is a crushing blow for West Milford and its residents, who have guarded their water supply so carefully for so many years,” said CLEAN Executive Director Robin O’Hearn in a written statement. Representatives for the developer and planning board could not be reached late today. E-mail: petrick@northjersey.com Copyright © North Jersey Media Group © 2008 Skylands CLEAN, Inc. • Background photo courtesy Dwight Hiscano, 908-273-5666 |
